Blue Infrastructure
INFRASTRUCTURE
Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen
KEY READINGS
Everything needs to Change: Architecture and the climate emergency. RIBA Design Studio Volume 1, Sofie Pelsmakers, Nick Newman. RIBA.
Retrofitting for Flood Resilience: A Guide to Building & Community Design. Edward Barsley. RIBA Publishing
Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., RIBA
The Environmental Design Pocketbook, Sofie Pelsmakers, RIBA
INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES
Enghaveparken. Third Nature. Copenhagen
Bishan-ang mo kio park. Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl. Singapore
Tieling Lotus Lake Wetland Park. Turenscape. Tieling City, China
Solrødgaard Water Treatment Plant. Henning Larsen Architects, Gottlieb Paludan Architects, C.F. Møller. Hillerød, Denmark.
BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE
Blue infrastructures are natural and human-made water systems at different scales. Integrating blue infrastructure at different scales in your project has multiple benefits, for example for biodiversity, the urban micro climate, reduced water consumption, and they can act as social infrastructure and for climate adaptation. Working with water rather than against it can lead to restorative actions (e.g. by giving water space; recharging the ground water through permeable paving; enabling the thriving of other species).
In your project:
· Map natural and human-made water bodies and understand how your site is affected by water as a threat or an opportunity (e.g., rivers, sea) now and in the future.
· Use permeable landscape surfaces, include space for water retention systems that are also dual-purpose, i.e., spaces for leisure to act as social infrastructure and space for enhancing biodiversity (restorative actions) and that can store water in extreme weather events as part of climate change adaptation.
· To mitigate climate change at micro-scale, always consider efficient appliances as a priority. Then consider water recycling strategies that are low in energy use and embodied energy, e.g. simple rain water harvesting techniques.
Finally, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) need to be combined at all scales: they all act together to mitigate and adapt to climate change and tackle the biodiversity crisis.